Air Show Atlantic 2023 …

Today I attended the “Air Show Atlantic 2023” with Lunenburg County’s other Scotsman Alan. Like most events during this summer of 2023, it was slightly damp. The airshow was supposed to be a two-day event over Saturday and Sunday, but yesterday (being Saturday) it rained so much, the organizers decided two days prior to cancel all the Saturday events.

As for today (Sunday), the Weather Network was forecasting a “risk of thunderstorms” for the whole day. This left me with the thought that only the brave, the insane or the Scots would drive over 200Km to risk thunderstorms while standing out on an open airfield ….!!

But as it turned out there was no thunderstorm, only lots of threatening gray clouds. However, I still got wet, or at least my shoes and feet did. The viewing field adjacent to the runway was absolutely saturated, like a gigantic sponge oozing lots of water. 

Air Show Atlantic is one of the productions of the Nova Scotia International Air Show Association (NSIASA), formed as a Nova Scotian not-for-profit society in 1996. This year marks the 12th year branded as Air Show Atlantic, it is the largest air show in Atlantic Canada and one of the larger and older air shows in Canada. This year will also be the 37th full air show in the organization's history.

About Debert Airport ~

Debert Airport located near Debert, Nova Scotia, has three runways and one big hanger. 

With nothing but farmland and woods, the land was initially purchased in 1938 with aerodrome construction beginning during August 1940. Opened April 1941 as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), the location trained pilots in advanced aircraft operations prior to them being deployed overseas.

The airport hosted No. 31 Operational Training Unit (OTU) during the first part of the war, then in 1944 was redesignated No. 7 OTU. Aircraft flown from the site during WWII were mainly Lockheed Hudsons and De Havilland Mosquitos.

At the end of its military use in 1971, Debert Airport and its surrounding land was purchased by the Government of Nova Scotia for development as the Debert Air Industrial Park. This was followed in 1972 with the formation of the Truro Flying Club. Today, the Debert Flight Centre, a division of the original Truro Flying Club, still provides instruction to pilots, from student pilots to commercial students.

Below is published list of some of the intended Air Show performers, but I suspect due to the poor weather many did not turn up for both the ground and flight displays ~

E/A-18G Growler Air Show Team, US Marine F-35B Lightning II, USAF C-17 Globemaster III West Coast Demo, Wings of Blue United States Air Force, Kyle Fowler Go EZ Aerobatics, de Havilland DH-115 Vampire, Yellow Thunder, Mike Tryggvason

10g Aerosports, David Costa Renegade AV8R, Tom Larkin Mini Jet Airshows and Redfox Airshows.

The Ground Displays include ~

USAF C-17 Globemaster III, US Navy EA/18G Growler, "Alice" Eviation, P-40, HEMTT M984A2 Wrecker US Army, B-25, P-51, LMTV M1078 Cargo US Army, US Army Chinook Helicopter, M915 Tractor w/ M1062 Fuel Tanker US Army and T-38.

See previous related blogs ~

Air Show Atlantic 2019

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2019/08/air-show-atlantic-2019.html

Blogs about the WWII British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) in Nova Scotia ~

The Lost Voices of WWII RAF/RCAF Greenwood

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-lost-voices-of-rafrcaf-greenwood_29.html

and

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth ..

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2020/06/oh-i-have-slipped-surly-bonds-of-earth.html

Today’s pics ….

Kejimkujik National Park Seaside Unit ...

For years I have been completely confused about ~ Kejimkujik National Park. I have seen highway signs indicating that the park is located north and inland from us in Pleasantville. Other signs indicate it is located east and is situated in a coastal area.

Yesterday, I looked further into this and found out there are in fact two Kejimkujik’s ~ one is Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site (north and inland from us) and the other is Kejimkujik National Park Seaside Unit (east and on the coast) and are a distance of 100km away from each other….

So, with that confusing issue finally resolved, today we went off for a visit to Kejimkujik National Park Seaside Unit. With it being a beautiful sunny day of which there has not been a lot of this summer, we decided to drive most of the way along the coastal road rather than the quicker Hwy 103.

Kejimkujik National Park Seaside Unit did not disappoint, it was absolutely stunning. It started with a hike along a gravel covered trail with warning signs about black bears, through a coastal forest and shrubby barrens which led us to glorious white sandy beaches, sheltered coves with beautiful ocean views, rocky islands, flocks of piping plovers buzzing around and seals basking on rocks.

Before the hike when we initially arrived at the car park, I was fascinated to see Land Rover Defender with British registered plates, more about that is written below.

As for the other Kejimkujik, since it is mainly forest, lakes and rivers, we will probably visit there in a couple of months when the fall colours are at their peak.

Bears don't shit in the woods, they do it on gravel trails

The Land Rover Defender ~

The vehicle belongs to Paul & Chrissie from Suffolk in England. I learned from their web-site their plan is to travel the world in “Stirling”, the Land Rover Defender.

I would thoroughly recommend viewing their web-site at ~

https://defender-adventure.com/ 

From the “Blog” link within their web-site, you can view a series of excellent YouTube videos of their travels, all of them look interesting and fascinating.

Another British registered Land Rover on worldly travels ~

Back in June 2015 on one of our reconnaissance visits to Nova Scotia, we came across ~ Moby the Land Rover.

You can read more about this encounter on my blog at ~

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2017/02/moby-land-rover.html